Flying machine



Sept. 17, 1929. 'r. M. FINLEY FLYING MACHINE Filed April 30.1928 2Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. .TZYFWZ Zay ATTORNE Sept. 17, 1929.

T. M. FINLEY FLYING MACHINE Filed. April 50. 1928 2 Sheets -Sheet ;2

. INVENTOR. ZYYFZQEZW 50 Ward. 7

Patented Sept. 17, 1929 i 1,728,404

v UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE, g, i I Ti M FIN'LEY, Or s r. routs liissouar I FLYING MACHINE Application filed April 1928? S al N6. 273,998,

The invention relates to improvements in The presentinvention isdesigned to obflying machines. viate all of the foregoing disadvantagesby The primary object of the invention is to eliminating thehead packand bytransferimprove the construction flying machines ringthe'vacuumsuck from the back of the of the lighter than ,air cigar shaped type bymachine to the' front thereof, and thereby eliminating head resistanceand vacuum reconvert What has heretofore been anobstacle sistance and.to replace thehead resistance orto the forward progress'of the machineinto dinarily encountered by ffng machines of a means of assistingtheforward movement this type with avacuum sucl; at thefront end orflight of the machine. I i p 10 and a siphon vacuum eliminating effectat the Another object of the invention is to elim- 60 o rear d 1 inatethe stream-line 'evil found in all cigar- Large lighter than airdirigible machines shaped or stream-line shaped machine's,v The I of thepresent type have two main resistances stream-line is used in theregulation type ma to which may be attributed their lack of succhine inan attempt toreduce the evilof the r c ssful or completely satisfactoryoperation, vacuun'i suck at the rear of tl ie'jlmachines 65 especiallytheir failure to attain high speeds body, and doubtlessdoes reduce it,but by no and the dil'liculties encountered in their 0011- meanseliminates it and such stream-line re-' troL I I duces the machines gascapacity andthereby lVhat is meant by headresistance is the airincreases the ratio of its body weight to its that banks at the front ofthe machines gas contents. 7 Q v i 1 body in resistance to flight.Thebody, being Another object of the invention is to innecessarily verythick, naturally, in action crease the strength of the body of themachine will collect tremendous,volumes of air, which and reduce theweight thereof and provide a will bank at the front endand whichcreatesbody of the cigar-shaped type having greater 25 great resistance andcauses themachine to be strength and less weight than those now in 75slow. Further, its resistance, in opposition use. I p i c I to thepropelling power, throws an enormous With these and otherobjccts inview, the strain on the framework ofthe body ofthe invention consists inthe construction and machine. It also causes the body of the ma novelcombination and arrangement of parts chine to pivot at the front orcontact end hereinafterfully described,illustrated in the so which givesan ineflicient action to the means accompanying, drawings and pointedout in of control makingthe machine, very slow in the claims heretoappended, it being, underits movement under the opcration of itsconstood that various changes in the form, protrolling means. portionand; minor details of. construction,

This heavy bank air packed at the conwithinthe scope of the claims,maybe resorttact end of the machine causes a swift flow of ed to withoutdeparting from the spirit or air back over the shoulders of the machine,sacrificing any of the advantages of the and at thatpoint the air leavesthe machines invention h 5 body, flying outwardly away from the body Inthe drawingsk I 40 of the machine and creating apartial vacuum Figure 1:is afront elevation of allying from that point on to the rear end of thebody. machine embodying the improvements of the This partial vacuum hasa strong suck effect present invention. i 1 upon the machines body, indirect opposition Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same. to its forward.progress. Therefore, we find Fig. 3 is ahorizontal sectional View.

in this described action of the air two/tre- In the accompanying drawingin which 90 mendous resistances tofiight, to Wit, head re is illustratedthe preferred embodiment of sistance by virtue of the air pack' f romthe the invention, the flying machinecomprises shoulders forward, andsuck resistance by infits construction a body 1 provided with a virtueof the vacuum from theshoulders rearcentrally arranged verticalelongated tunnel 2 having a substantially flaring mouth or en.

trance and extending entirely through the body 1 from the front end tothe rear end thereof. Although the tunnel is shown Vertically elongatedit may be elongated horizontally with substantially the same results sofar as the movement of the air is concerned, so long as the body of themachine is made to conform correctly to the form of the inventionillustrated in the accompanying drawings. The body 1 is composed ofinner and outer walls 3 and 4: connected at their ends with each otheras clearly illustrated inFig. 3 of the drawings, the inner wall definingthe vertical elongated tunnel and the outer wall the exterior of thebody of the machine.

tervening' space 5 between the inner and outer walls constitutes the gaschamber and will in practice contain'the supporting framework and as anydesired construction of supporting framework maybe employed illustrationthereof in the present application is deemed unnecessary. The space 5 atthe sides and bottom of the body between the inner and outerwalls willper mit ofa framework composed of substantially vertical side frames andapproximately hori zontal top and bottom frames of any suitable trussformation and the arrangement will result in a lighter and strongerframework formation than the framework of the ordinary flying machine ofthe cigar-shaped type.

The flaring mouth or entrance of the Vertical elongated tunnel'formsa'front or outer shoulder 6, an inner or rear shoulder 7 and an Vlntermediate longitudinal connecting portion 8 extending from the inneredge of the outer shoulder to the outer edge of the inner shoulder. Theflaring mouth or entrance is rounded slightly vat 9 at thejuncture ofthe outer shoulder and the intermediatelongitudinal connecting portion 8to present a convexexterior surface at the mouth or entrance and thesaidmouth or entrance is curved at 10 at the juncture of thelongitudinal portion 8 and the inner shoulder 7 to present an exteriorthe direct path ofthe air drawn into the mouth or entrance of the tunnelby front propellers 11. These front and rear shoulders by receding fromthe line a 7) form suction'pockets to create the suction hereinafterfully explained for assisting theforward movement or flight ofthe body.The front or outer shoulder 6 is arranged at substantially an obtuseangle to I the longitudinal connecting portion 8 to-providea flaring endto the mouth and the inner or rear shoulder extendsinwardly transverse-1y to form the pronounced pocket.

The in- The body is equipped with a pair of front propellers 11 locatedat the upper and lower portions of the tunnel at the front thereof atthe inner reduced end of the substantially flaring mouth or entrance andit has a pair of upper and lower rear propellers 12 located within thetunnel at the rear portion of the body, but any desired number of pairsof propellers may, of course, be provided and arranged similar to thefront and rear propellers. The vertical distance between the top andbottom of the vertical elongated tunnel is greater than or in excess ofthe combined diameters of the propellers 11 to provide an expansionspace for the air to prevent the airfrom packing in the tunnel andweighting the machine at the rear end thereof and interfering with theforward progress of the machine. This result is effected by providingthe said expansion space between the upper and lower propellers whichoperate in close proximity to the walls of the tunnel at the top andbottom thereof, the curvature of the walls at the top and bottom beingconcentric with the circle in which the tips of the blades of thepropellers move.

The vertical elongated tunnel is the means employed to transfer thedisplaced air from the contact end of the machine and cause the saiddisplaced air to move through the body of the machine and out at therear end thereof. The forward propellers draw the air from the frontofthe body of the machine into the tunnel, and in doing so, they draw theair around the shoulders 6 and 7 of the front or contact end of themachine, thereby forming vacuums ahead of the shoulders.

- The propellers being stationed in rear of the shoulders will draw theair in a straight at both of the shoulders 6 and 7 which form a steppedor corrugated surface from the outer end of the mouth or entrance to thefront propellers which are located at the front end of the tunnel properas clearly illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

The reason for two such shoulders is that in case the machine in actionshould be opposed by a wind so. violent that it should overcome thepower of the propellers sufficiently to reach the outer or front contactshoulder 6 and thereby destroy or materially reduce the vacuum effectthere, it would then slip inwardly and backwardly around the inner orsecond shoulder 7 and still produce a power Vacuum ahead of the secondshoulder 7 which would be of great assistance to the machine under theseadverse conditions. The

air passing through the tunnel not only produces a vacuum effect at thefront end of the body, but also produces a siphon effect at the rear endof the body.

The reverse siphon effect at the rear end of the body is of greatimportance and benefit, first, because it makes it possible to shortenvery materially the slope or taper of the machine at the rear end overwhat is considered necessary with the stream-line of the ordinary flyingmachine of the cigar-shaped type, and thereby gives much larger gasspace for a given length over that of the ordinary stream-line bodies.

This is caused by virtue of the fact that the siphon moving body of airexpelled at the rear of the tunnel draws the air from around the body ofthe machine over the comparatively short slope'or tapered portion 13 tothe tunnel air, thereby effectively preventing a vacuum in the immediatewake of the machine and at the same time obviating the necessity of along tapering gas space reducing stream-line, which has a vacuum ofgreat proportions. The siphon effect at the rear is no less important tosuccessful flight than is the vacuum effect at the contact end and thecombined effect of the two make a powerful machine, compact in size,strong of body, swift in flight and easy in. control because of the factthat such a machine will pivot at its center rather than at the contactend as is thecase with all cigar or stream-line shapes.

The reason for a transversely or vertical elongated tunnel is thatexperiments have shown that a round tunnel which is filled with thepropeller gives no room for the expansion of the air behind thepropeller, and this expansion of air after leaving the propeller isnatural and if prevented by the walls of the tunnel will cause highfrictional resistance along those walls. This in turn, holds the airback and the further along the walls of the tunnel it goes, the slowerits action. This soon creates an air pack, which grows heavier andheavier the further it progresses along the walls, until it has createda tremendous weight at the rear end of the machine, adding to the weightof the whole machine and cutting down the power of buoyancy of themachine.

If the tunnel be enlarged in all directions, that is, if a tunnelcircular in cross section of materially greater diameter than thepropeller be employed, then the current of air from the propeller movingswiftly through the centerof the tunnel will not reach the outer wallsof the tunnel and will draw the air away from the outer walls leaving inplace thereof a vacuum and this vacuum makes the machine slow. Besidesthis effect, the propeller must be long enough so that the ends of itsblades may extend close to the tunnel walls immediately in rear of theshoulders at the stepped contact end of the body; otherwise,-they willnot create the vacuum there. Therefore, the reason for the verticallyelongated tunnel with two propellers spaced apart so as to leave roombetween them is to take care of the natural expansion of the air, and atthe same time create the vacuum at the front of the machine by virtue ofthe propellers being properly located with relation to the shouldersthereof of the corrugated or stepped contact end of the body.

The body is designed to be equipped with a suitable cabin 1a which ispreferably arranged at the bottom of the body and which preferablyextends partly within and partly exterior of the body, but a cabinorcabins of any preferred construction may be employed as will bereadily understood.

What is claimed is 1. A flying machine body of the cigarshaped typeprovided with a longitudinal tunnel and having propellers operating atopposite walls thereof, said tunnel being elongated cross sectionally inone direction to space the saidopposite walls a distance greater thanthe combined diametersof thepropellers to provide a central airexpansion space between the propellers to prevent air from packing inthe tunnel.

2. A flying machine'bodyof the cigarshaped type provided with aVerticallyelongated tunnel and upper and lower propellers operating inthe tunnel adjacent the top and bottom walls thereof, the verticaldistance or height of the tunnel being greater than the combineddiameters of the propellers to, provide an air expansion space toprevent the air from packing in the tunnel and weighting the body at therear end thereof.

8. A flying machine body having a longitudinal tunnel provided withopposite transversely curved concave walls and substantially straightconnecting walls, and propellers operating in the tunnel adjacent thecurved walls, the said tunnel being elongated cross sectionally in onedirection to space the curved walls a distance in excess of the combineddiameters of the propellers to provide an air expansion space to preventthe air from packing in the tunnel. I V

4. A flying machine body having a longitudinal tunnel provided at thetop and bottom with transversely curved walls and having straightvertical. side walls and elongated vertically, and upper and lowerpropellers operating in the tunnel adjacent the curved walls, thevertical distance or height of the tunnel being in excess of thecombined dian'ieerating in the tunnel in rear of the said shoulders fordrawing the air in the tunnel to elim- V tunnel having a mouth orentrance of stepliketormation consisting of inner and outer shoulders,and anintcrmediate longitudinal connecting portion, the outer shoulderextending outwardly from the intermediate connecting portion and theinner shoulder eX- tending inwardly therefrom, and propellers arrangedin the tunnel in rear of the said shoulders and spaced apart by the saidelongation of the tunnel to provide an air expansion space, saidpropellers being adapted to draw the air into the tunnel to prevent afront pack and to produce vacuum sucks at the said shoulders.

7. A flying machine body of the cigarshaped type provided with alongitudinal tunnel having a flaringentrance of step-like formationconsisting oi inner and outer shoulders and an intermediate longitudinalconnecting portion, the outer shoulder bein) arranged at an obtuse angleto the longitudinal connecting portion and extending outwardly therefromto form a flaring end portion, and the inner shoulder extending inwardlyin a transverse direction from the longitudinal connecting portion toprovide a pronounced pocket, and propellers operating in the timnel inrear of the saidshoulders.

8. A flying machine body of the cigarshaped type provided with alongitudinal tunnel having a flaring entrance of step-like formationconsisting of inner and outer shoulders and an intermediate longitudinalconnecting portion, the outer shoulder being arranged at an obtuse angleto the longitudinal connecting portion and extending outwardly therefromto form a flaring end portion, and the inner shoulder extending inwardlyin a transverse direction from the longitudinal CODIIBClBlIlg portion toprovide a pronounced pocket, and propellers operating in the tunnel inrear of the said shoulders, and located acent the upper and lower wallsof thetunnel, the latter being vertically elongated and the verticaldistance or height of the tunnel being in excess of the combineddiameters of the propellers toprovide an air expansion space to preventthe air from packing in the tunnel and weighting the rear end of thebody.

SJA flying machine body of the cigarshaped type provided with alongitudinal tunnel having a mouth of step-like formation consisting ofinner and outer shoulders and an intermediate longitudinal connectingportion, the outer shoulder being disposed at an obtuse angle to theinteri'nediate portion to provide a flaring end, and an inner shoulderextending inwardly transversely from the rear endof the intermediateportion to form a pronounced pocket, and upper and lower propellerslocated in the tunnel in rear of the said shoulders and arrangedadjacent the top and bottom walls thereof, the tunnel being THOMAS M.FINLEY.

